Spring time Report - April 14th, 2026

A visit to the Kingdom for the Munster Roads
Suggestions that spring had sprung proved to be somewhat premature as the great and good of Munster athletics converged on Castleisland, Co. Kerry on Sunday, 1st March for the Munster Roads Championships. Wind and cold rain were the order of the day in the Kingdom. Hosted by An Riocht at their impressive club facilities, the 4 mile races took in a loop around the town which included a run down the widest street in Ireland at the beginning of the race, followed by a 300m blast around the track to finish up. All in all, it was an enjoyable course.

The club just about mustered up a team to make the journey and it was Matt Horrigan who led the side home in 20th position (21m 57s) scoring on the Cork gold medal-winning county novice side. Stephen O’Brien was next up in 43rd place, learning that a 300m blast on a track at the end of 4 miles is a different proposition to a 300m blast on a track full stop. Michael Furlong made a racing return in his adopted Kerry homeland in 53rd place with Ollie Smiddy rounding out the club’s day in 77th.


Masters medals galore in Athlone
St. Patrick’s weekend saw the National Masters Indoor Track & Field Championships take place in Athlone. Fresh from their exploits in Nenagh in February both Ollie Smiddy and Niamh O’Connor made the trip up to Ireland’s Hidden Heartlands to measure themselves against the best the country has to offer. And they measured up quite well. In the 1500m, Niamh O’Connor took a comfortable F45 bronze medal (5m 25s). Ollie Smiddy held second place at the 600 metre mark of the M50 800m but was demoted to 3rd place in a blanket finish, setting a 2m 15s PB. Huge congratulations to both national medalists! Congratulations also to our training partner Elaine Cardiff who secured F40 silver in the 3000m behind her Kilmore AC clubmate Fiona Kehoe.

East Cork Roads – Ballynoe
Thursday 9th April saw the 47th edition of the East Cork Roads Championships - the race that not even Covid could defeat – run as always on the fabled lanes around the village of Ballynoe. They speak in hushed tones of the Beast of Ballynoe – the fearsome climb past the GAA club which has reduced some of the county’s finest to mere also-rans on occasion. Who would fall victim in 2026..?

The ladies ran off first and we only had one representative to take on the 3,000m course, Well done to Eibhlin Cleary for keeping the flag flying in a 22nd place finish.

The gentlemen were up next, facing four laps of the village over 5 miles. This year the division welcomed athletes from the revived Glanmire AC to the fold for the first time. Such has been the strength of their recruitment drive, and the current injury crisis affecting East Cork AC, that our hopes of victory were slim at best. Club glory was a more realistic target – something which has managed to elude us for the past few years, given that the top three individuals do not contribute to the team score. Would tactics come into play in order to secure the right result….?

Five clubmen took to the start and, from the off, the race for victory became an immediate battle between Glanmire’s media officer, Donal Coakley, and Carraig na bhFear’s Colin Meritt. These two were initially joined by St. Catherine’s Jim Harty but he was swiftly dropped, falling back into the chasing pack. This pack was led by Chris Kelly and Donal Giltinan. And so it remained for the first two laps, during which time, Stephen O’Brien passed a number of athletes to make it an East Cork trio running in 4th, 5th and 6th places. With Ollie Smiddy and Dave O’Dwyer a few places further back, we were in a strong position to win the team title.

Then, something strange happened on the third run down the hill. Chris Kelly misplaced his script and passed Jim Harty to take 3rd place. As a result of this, Dave O’Dwyer’s positioning suddenly became very important – a message relayed to the Limerick-man in no uncertain terms by Denis McCarthy.

And so it was that Chris, Jim Harty and Donal arrived at the base of the final climb together in that order, with Stephen around 10 seconds adrift. With the top two already finished, it was the battle for 3rd place that was to keep the punters spellbound. Donal made his move early, taking the lead of the group as they approached the GAA club. However, he didn’t bargain on the climbing prowess of his rivals and soon found himself overhauled and out of gas as the climb began to level off. It all came down to a final sprint between Chris and Jim Harty so, as they turned right for the finish line. Chris just couldn’t find that extra gear though (or was he thinking about the team…) and it was the St. Catherine’s man that took the final podium spot with a couple of seconds to spare.

Blissfully unaware of drama playing out ahead, Stephen had been steadily closing the gap to the trio with a final dash up the hill – the recent session at Walshtown no doubt paying off in spades. However, some exquisitely timed encouragement from a spectating Matt Horrigan gave Donal the impetus to keep his clubmate behind as he crossed the line in 5th place, just 2 seconds behind Chris, with Stephen a further two seconds in arrears in 6th place. Ollie Smiddy was fourth man home in a lonely 16th place while Dave O’Dwyer picked up couple of spots in response to Denis’s exhortations to finish 28th. All of this secured a comfortable victory for the club – its first since 2021.

Congratulations to Donal Coakley for winning the race on debut, becoming just the second non-East Cork AC athlete to triumph since the club’s formation in 1985 – Martin Drake being the other, winning for Celtic AC in 1993. We can only hope that ‘normal’ service will be resumed in 2027.

And finally…
· Paul Hartnett and Ciarán McNamee represented their colleges at the IUAA indoor championships in Dublin. Paul placed 5th overall in the 3000m (8m 32s) while Ciarán was 24th in the 1500m (4m 36s).

· Sunday the 8th March saw the second running of the CEASC 10 miler along the Midleton-Mogeely section of the Greenway. Although only one East Cork club singlet was spotted participating in the race, there were plenty of volunteers who turned up for pacing duties: Mike Harty, Frank O’Brien, Matt Horrigan, Chris Kelly, Graham Swords, Christine Kelly and Dave O’Dwyer. Thanks to all. Hopefully the 60-minute gang appreciated the fact that they were being looked after by two national intermediate XC champions…

· The 2025/2026 Cloyne 4k Commons series came to a conclusion on the Sunday before St. Patrick’s Day. There was no club glory on the day but, as always, the race attracted a large turnout on a pleasant March morning. Just seven short months to go now before it all kicks off again!

· And finally, Christine Kelly finished 3rd placed F40 in last weekend’s Cobh 10-miler as she took a ‘break’ from her Cork City Marathon preparations. Well done Christine!